Cron jobs for user hestiaweb not triggering in HestiaCP

[mih]

Hi all,
I’m having trouble with cron jobs for the user hestiaweb on my HestiaCP server. Although the cron service is running fine and cron jobs for other users work as expected, the jobs under hestiaweb do not trigger.

Here’s what I have checked so far:

• The crontab file /var/spool/cron/crontabs/hestiaweb exists with correct permissions (-rw-------) owned by hestiaweb.
• Listing cron jobs with sudo crontab -u hestiaweb -l shows the correct scheduled commands.
• Running the cron scripts manually as hestiaweb returns the following error:

/usr/local/hestia/func/main.sh: line 10: /usr/local/hestia/conf/hestia.conf: Permission denied

• The file /usr/local/hestia/conf/hestia.conf has permissions -rw-r--r-- root root, so it should be readable by any user.
• However, the parent directory /usr/local/hestia/conf has permissions drwxr-x--- root root, which blocks hestiaweb from accessing it.
• Because of this, the cron jobs running as hestiaweb cannot read necessary config files and fail to execute properly.

Questions:

1. What is the best practice to fix this issue without compromising server security?
2. How should I configure permissions so that hestiaweb can run its cron jobs successfully?
3. Is there a recommended way in HestiaCP to manage cron jobs for the hestiaweb user?

Thanks in advance for any help!

---

Want me to help you with posting it or adding any logs?

[sahsanu]

Hi @mih

Show the output of these commands (as root):

cat /etc/sudoers.d/hestiaweb
ls -la /var/spool/cron/crontabs
crontab -l -u hestiaweb | cat -A

[mih]

cat /etc/sudoers.d/hestiaweb

Defaults:root !requiretty

# sudo is limited to hestia scripts
hestiaweb   ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/local/hestia/bin/

ls -la /var/spool/cron/crontabs

total 44
drwx-wx--T 2 root      crontab   4096 May 24 19:23 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root      root      4096 Feb 27 17:35 ..
-rw------- 1 admin     admin       65 May  3 01:54 admin
-rw------- 1 user1      user1         75 Apr  3 13:33 user1
-rw------- 1 user2      user2   73 Dec 19  2023 user2
-rw------- 1 user3       user3       145 May 21 11:24 user3
-rw------- 1 user4      user4    10 Aug  1  2023 user4
-rw------- 1 hestiaweb crontab    832 May 24 19:36 hestiaweb
-rw------- 1 root      root      1033 May 24 19:36 hestiaweb.vst.back
-rw------- 1 user5    user5      74 May 22  2024 user5
-rw------- 1 root      crontab   1220 Apr 12 00:10 root

crontab -l -u hestiaweb | cat -A

MAILTO=""$
CONTENT_TYPE="text/plain; charset=utf-8"$
*/2 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart$
10 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue daily$
15 02 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue disk$
10 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue traffic$
30 03 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue webstats$
*/5 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue backup$
10 05 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-backup-users$
20 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-user-stats$
*/5 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-rrd$
24 3 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-letsencrypt-ssl$

[sahsanu]

@mih

Running the cron scripts manually as hestiaweb returns the following error:

Just to clarify. The cron jobs are added for user hestiaweb but they run as root (you will see that all commands use sudo).

@mih

ls -la /var/spool/cron/crontabs

Ok, remove this file:

rm -f /var/spool/cron/crontabs/hestiaweb.vst.back

Use this command to edit crontab and save (there is no need to modify anything, just edit and save):

crontab -e -u hestiaweb

Wait five minutes and check whether cron jobs run again:

grep 'CRON.*v-update' /var/log/syslog

[mih]

@sahsanu

crontab -l -u hestiaweb | cat -A

crontab -e -u hestiaweb

MAILTO=""
CONTENT_TYPE="text/plain; charset=utf-8"
*/2 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart
10 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue daily
15 02 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue disk
10 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue traffic
30 03 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue webstats
*/5 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue backup
10 05 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-backup-users
20 00 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-user-stats
*/5 * * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-rrd
24 3 * * * sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-letsencrypt-ssl

grep ‘CRON.*v-update’ /var/log/syslog

2025-05-24T20:05:01.819119+03:00 panel CRON[922337]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-rrd)
2025-05-24T20:05:01.819893+03:00 panel CRON[922338]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue backup)
2025-05-24T20:06:01.271133+03:00 panel CRON[923317]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)
2025-05-24T20:08:01.496517+03:00 panel CRON[923418]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)
2025-05-24T20:10:01.722654+03:00 panel CRON[923872]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-rrd)
2025-05-24T20:10:01.723775+03:00 panel CRON[923874]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue backup)
2025-05-24T20:10:01.724257+03:00 panel CRON[923875]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)
2025-05-24T20:12:01.918985+03:00 panel CRON[925338]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)
2025-05-24T20:14:01.140566+03:00 panel CRON[925485]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)
2025-05-24T20:15:01.268766+03:00 panel CRON[925619]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-rrd)
2025-05-24T20:15:01.269316+03:00 panel CRON[925620]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue backup)
2025-05-24T20:16:01.458324+03:00 panel CRON[926118]: (hestiaweb) CMD (sudo /usr/local/hestia/bin/v-update-sys-queue restart)

[sahsanu]

Perfect, it works again.

These merged PRs will fix this issue in next Hestia release:

Fix editing Panel Cronjobs for hestiaweb

Ensure newline at end of hestiaweb user crontab

[mih]

Hi @sahsanu,

Thank you very much for your time, help, and clear explanations. I really appreciate your support and the way you guided me through solving the issue with the cron jobs for hestiaweb. Everything is working correctly now!

Your assistance made a big difference — thanks again!

Best regards,
mih